filtration advice

Joe1985

hey all just wanted to grab some advice/ pointers off of yas, i have a 4ft 60gallon tank im setting up and would like some tips on filtration, the tank i got came with 2x 1200L/H internal filters, wondering if thats adequate for a tank my size? if so thats great but if not what would be more ideal? any feedback would be greatly appreciated thanks :)

jaysee

Internal filters are marginal at best - they don't hold a lot of media or else they would take up too much room on the tank. Of course what you will actually need for filtration will depend on what you plan to stock.

On a larger tank like that, 2 filters are better than one IME.

Varkolak

I myself am a fan of internal filters and at around 450gph on each filter your pretty well off running a 900gph flow in a 60gal tank, just note that if you don't have live plants you will need one to break the surface for water agitation or add a bubble strip

Joe1985

so your saying the flow is good? it came with a plastic bottle of activated carbon? for instance what would be an ideal canister filter if i was to look into buying one? so the internals i have will be good providing i get some sort of bubble activity going?

Varkolak

Yup they are more then enough, that's 15x full tank water rotation, if you really wanted a canister a rena xp2 or 3 are fine 2 for a normal tank 3 if you are heavily stocked on fish and want the extra filtration. But i still think the flow you have is already plenty

Joe1985

cool thanks mate i wont worry on that for now, so with the carbon do i add it to the filters? i putting 4 angels and a few other in this tank but along the track will most likely put africans in it so ill save for a better filter then

jaysee

an internal filter needs to have a high turnover to compensate for a lack of media - same reason why a tank filtered with an HOB needs a higher turnover rate than a canister. The higher turnover feeds the filter with water with a lower ammonia concentration. A canister, on the other hand, can process a higher concentration of ammonia because of the media it holds, so it doesn't need as high of a turnover rate.

If you move to a higher bioload tank, you should consider upgrading at least one of them to a canister.

All GPH are not the same. While GPH is used as a bench mark for filtration, volume of media plays a significant role in the capacity of a filtration system. One (or both for that matter) of those 450 gph internal filters is no where near the capacity of a 450 gph XP4.

Also, cycling the water more than 10 times an hour is a LOT of current - too much for many fish, including the angels.

slojko

i have one fluval 4 plus internal filter for my 55 gallon.
it does 260 GPH and i was wondering whats the standard GPH per gallon of water.